Etymologically
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chow

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /t͡ʃaʊ/[1]

Etymology

It is a clipping from Chinese Pidgin English chow-chow (“food; a mixture or medley”),[2][3][4][5][6][7] recorded from 1795.[2][4][5] According to Yule, the pidgin word is of uncertain origin.[5][6] Barnhart and Etymonline suggest a reduplication of a Chinese word meaning "mixed", and Etymonline also mentions the Cantonese word for "to fry, cook";[2][4] the American Heritage Dictionary instead suggests a Cantonese word meaning "food, miscellany", the one in chop suey,[8] and Merriam-Webster a Mandarin word for a meat dumpling.[9][10] Partridge called the source of the pidgin adjective an unknown Chinese word.[11] Hobson-Jobson notes that in pidgin chow meant food of any kind and chow-chow mixed preserves.[12] The name of the dog, recorded from 1889 and as chow-chow from 1886, is of uncertain origin;[2][3] Hobson-Jobson quotes the view that it comes from the mistaken belief that dogs were a main item of diet in China,[12] and Green's Dictionary of Slang wonders whether the food word itself goes back to the dog's name.[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

Food: 1856, in American English, first in California,[4][2][3] in the Spirit of the Age, where it is explained as something good to eat.[13] The OED's first record of this sense is from Hobson-Jobson (1886).[5]

Semantic evolution

In American use chow was at first especially Chinese food,[4] and it became the usual slang word for food in institutions such as army mess halls and prisons.[13] From 1907 it was also a verb, to eat,[13] which Merriam-Webster dates to 1917;[9] in North America chow down means to eat heartily.[7][14] The noun also gave chowhound, a person who eats too much, in American slang.[6] In Australia and New Zealand the word was an offensive name for a Chinese person, recorded from 1872, and chow-chow from 1869.[5][6] The breed of dog from China, with a black or bluish tongue, was called a chow from 1889.[5][2][6]

Timeline

  • 1795 – pidgin chow-chow, food, a mixture.[5][2]
  • 1856 – food, in California.[4][2][13]
  • 1872 – offensive name for a Chinese person, chiefly Australian.[5]
  • 1886 – chow-chow, the dog.[5][2]
  • 1889 – chow, the dog.[5][2]
  • 1907 – verb, to eat.[13]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (slang) food; also a meal or mealtime: We lined up for chow at six.[9][15][5]
  2. A chow-chow: a sturdy dog of a Chinese breed with a thick coat, a tail curled over the back and a bluish-black tongue.[7][14][5]
  3. (chiefly Australian, offensive, now dated) A Chinese person.[5][9][6]

Verb

  1. (informal, chiefly North American) To eat, often in chow down: The kids chowed down on pancakes.[9][7][14]

Word family

  • chowtime
  • chowhound
  • chow-chow
  • chow mein
  • chop suey

Usage notes

The Scots and dialect verb chow, to chew, recorded from 1382, is a variant of chew and has a separate source.[5][6] Green's Dictionary of Slang also records chow as a spelling of ciao, goodbye, from 1961.[13]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  3. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  9. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  10. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
  11. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
  12. ^ a b Yule, Henry; Burnell, A. C. (1903), Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, new ed. by William Crooke, London: John Murray
  13. ^ a b c d e f g Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  14. ^ a b c Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  15. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins